


Crashed on Planet Death

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Fluff, M/M, it's the best, keith and pidge are FRIENDS, pidge is underrated, super cute shit, there are EXACTLY 6000 words
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-29
Updated: 2017-07-29
Packaged: 2018-12-08 14:44:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11648742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Keith and Lance get thrown out of the wormhole in the middle of travel. Their lions are down and they've only got each other.Of COURSE something was bound to happen.





	1. Crush Landing

KLANCEKLANCEKLANCEKLANCE

 

CHAPTER ONE: Crush Landing

  
“Where… are we?” 

Keith walked out of the Red Lion, staring around at the vast jungle in front of him. He looked past Red, where the Blue Lion was in a wreckage. Lance was at the top, pulling himself out of the cockpit.

“I don’t know.” Lance looked around at the vines hanging from the trees that went up almost fifty feet in the air. “Hopefully somewhere  _ without _ anything that wants to kill us.” Lance slid off the Blue Lion’s face and onto the ground. The dirt was dark and fertile. Lance collapsed onto his knees. “Shit!”

Keith ran over. “Lance, what’s wrong? What happened?” He pulled Lance up off the ground and Lance threw his arm around Keith’s shoulder.

“My ankle,” Lance said, wincing. “I think I hurt it in the crash. Do you have any medical supplies in Red? Something to set it or whatever?”

“I mean, I think so. I don’t know why she  _ wouldn’t _ ,” Keith said. “Are you good to just stand here for a while?”

“I’m injured, not dying.”

“Okay, asshole,” Keith said. He let go and Lance almost toppled over. Keith grabbed Lance’s hand and hauled him back upright. “Lean against your lion or something. I’ll be back.”

A few minutes later, Keith came back. He held out a bottle of Jack Daniels. “I only found painkillers.”

“Why is there alcohol in your lion?” Lance asked suspiciously. “And I’m only 17.”

“You’re in space, billions of light years away from Earth. Do you really care about the drinking age? It’s 16 in Germany, you know.” Keith sat down in the damp dirt next to Lance. “It’s fine if you don’t want any. But I have nothing for your ankle.”

Lance took the bottle. “I can’t believe you have this. Shiro would kill you if he found out.”

“Is Shiro going to find out?” Keith asked, eyebrows raised at Lance.

“No,” Lance muttered after he took a swig. He wiped his mouth and gagged. “Jesus, this stuff tastes awful.”

Keith shrugged. “You’ll get used to it.”

“And, pray tell, why are you used to it?”

Something of a huff escaped Keith’s lips. “Drink it or don’t. I’m gonna look around.” His bayard grew into a red sword and he started hacking at some of the vines, walking away from Lance.

 

Lance stared into the bottle with one eye. It was almost empty, and the shock that had hurt his ankle was ebbing away, but he was still afraid to try and walk on it. He took another swig and made a face. He didn’t think he’d ever get used to it, no matter what Keith said. 

He wished he’d gotten stuck with anyone except Keith. Shiro, even. He thought about Keith, and how Keith talked, and how Keith smiled, and how Keith was annoyingly funny and helpful. He remembered all the times he’d been jealous of Keith, and admired him. He remembered Nyma and Allura. He took one sip from the bottle, trying to distract himself, but he was sure he didn’t want to be dependent on it for driving away thoughts he wasn’t ready to deal with.

 

Far from Lance, Keith was walking by a river. The water was clear and blue, vibrant as the rest of the jungle- but he was wary of it. He watched a small, strange creature drink from the pond. He still didn’t touch it. Instead, he thought about Lance’s stupid question. “Why are you used to it?” Keith muttered to himself in a mocking tone. “Stupid.”

He sighed and turned back around. There was nothing out here that he would deem safe to eat unless he fed it to Lance first, but that seemed a little cruel, even to someone as dense as Lance.

He kept slashing at the vines with his bayard. They seemed to grow thicker as he moved along. He turned suddenly, and watched as the fallen vines shriveled and the other halves grew vines from the severed spot, like hydras. He wiped sweat off the back of his neck. The jungle was  _ hot _ and  _ humid. _

He didn’t keep cutting the vines. Keith found Lance again, still laying against his lion, with the bottle of Jack Daniels that only had a fourth of alcohol left. 

“You didn’t drink any?” Keith asked.

“No,” Lance said. “Sorry.”

“Nah, it’s fine. More for me.” He smiled, but it was forced. “It’s only for special occasions, anyway.”

“Am I not special?” Lance teased, but he was blushing ever so slightly.

Keith looked at him for a long time before responding. “You’re special, all right.” He felt all the thoughts from when they first started ‘bonding’ coming back. He didn’t notice how rosy Lance’s cheeks were.

“Hey!”

Keith couldn’t keep the smile off his face. He walked twenty feet back to Red and put the alcohol back in the hidden cabinet. He came back with granola bars and a bottle of water. “I hope we aren’t stuck here too long. Is your ankle feeling better?”

“I’m pretty sure I just landed awkwardly. It’ll be fine in an hour.” Lance took a granola bar and started eating it. “Man, I actually kinda miss the green goop Coran and Allura fed us.”

“Anything looks like a delicacy when you’re hungry,” Keith responded, taking a bite of his own granola bar. “It’s gonna be dark soon, so get in your lion when you can. Long night ahead. I’m gonna try and fix my communications system.”

“Have fun,” Lance said. “I’ll just sit here… alone. With those creepy vines that are  _ everywhere. _ ”

“Don’t you have your bayard in case something attacks you or whatever?” Keith asked, climbing onto his lion’s head.

“Yeah, but-”

“I’m trying to get us rescued, Lance!”

Lance huffed and looked away. “Never mind.” He activated his bayard and sat with the gun in his lap. 

Inside Red, Keith started poking around the wiring in his helmet. “Hey, can anyone hear me?” He said, and he waited for a response.

“Yup,” was Lance’s cocky, scratchy voice. “I can hear-” but the rest of his words were cut off by static in the helmet.

Keith popped out of the Red Lion’s head. “Can you not be a dick for ten minutes?”

Lance smiled cheekily. “I’m sure you’ll fix the communications system.”

Keith rolled his eyes and went back into the cockpit. Pidge had taught him what she could. She walked him through what she was doing when she was searching for her family, or fixing something with Coran. He liked to think that he knew what he was doing, but he was no Pidge.

Everything was offline. He didn’t know if even Pidge could track them from wherever she was.

After getting shocked for the fifth time, Keith looked outside and saw that the sun (well,  _ suns _ here) was (were?) sinking over the jungle. He walked outside. Lance wasn’t leaned against his lion, so Keith hopped in through the top. “Lance?”

“Hey, Keith,” Lance said. “I found sleeping bags! Three of them, but we only need two.” Lance smiled brightly, and it occurred to Keith how white Lance’s teeth were against his skin. He’d thought about how Lance was  _ conventionally  _ attractive before, but so were the other members of the team-

Keith shook his head slightly. “Oh, thanks.” He took one from Lance’s outstretched hands. “Do you need anything else?”

“I could use a way back to the other lions,” Lance said. 

“Communications are still down. It’s offline. We’re untrackable.”

Lance frowned. “Well, that sucks. See you tomorrow! Maybe we’ll be able to figure this out after a really nice, long sleep.” He smiled again, and went about setting up his bag in the corner of the lion’s head.

Keith went to leave the lion, but as soon as his face touched the open air, he shivered. It was freezing. How had he been sweating only hours earlier? He looked closely at a vine inches from his face. It was speckled with a thin layer of frost. He dropped back down into the head of the Blue Lion.

“Actually,” he said, scratching the back of his neck. “It’s freezing. Can I stay in here?”

Lance turned around and his face stretched into a wide, lazy grin. He shoved his hands in his pockets and stood, sticking out his hips. “You wanna stay in here?”

“Lance, it’s  _ cold. _ I don’t want to imagine what it’s like in a dead, metal lion.”

“Our lions aren’t dead, they’re sleeping!”

“They have no heating system, and it’s less than 20 degrees outside!” Keith said, exasperated. “I don’t want to freeze to death!”

Lance kept grinning. “Sure, sure. Come on. Don’t freeze on  _ my _ account.” He spread his arms, gesturing widely to the corner that he’d set up his sleeping bag.

Keith mimicked him incoherently- “don’t freeze on my account”- under his breath. He fluffed out his sleeping bag and started zipping it up.

But Lance said, “Shouldn’t you zip them together?”

Keith stopped. “Well… I guess, yeah. It  _ is _ pretty cold outside. Frosty vines and everything.” Despite the muggy heat earlier. He paused, but the reason was shoved in the back of his head.  _ You don’t want to be this close to anyone. Even Lance. _ He zipped the two sleeping bags together.

The suns sank below the treetops and the lion’s head became too dark to see anything. Keith was facing Lance’s back, and Lance was facing the wall. Keith fought a shiver, and thought,  _ If I wake up and we’re mushed together in ANY way… _

He shook his head again and went to sleep.

 

Lance was staring at the wall, wide awake, and completely aware of Keith’s breathing evening out. He felt anxious. He sat up and looked outside. He squinted, and realized there were  _ three _ moons outside. Two suns, and three moons? That felt like a recipe for gravitational disaster. 

He reached for his bayard and kept it tucked in his sleeping bag, and stopped when he saw Keith’s face in the pale moonlight. He was relaxed. He didn’t look afraid or uneasy like he always did. Lance smiled, but then he forced himself to look away. He felt his face grow warm. Those feelings were  _ not _ gone and were  _ not _ going away.

He couldn’t shake the bad feeling that something was about to happen. He went back to facing the wall and went to sleep, thinking about how peaceful Keith looked when he was asleep.


	2. Future Boyfriends Bond

CHAPTER TWO: Future Boyfriends Bond

  
Keith woke up feeling warm and at ease. His nose was pressed against something that was radiating heat. He opened his eyes slowly, and realized he was up against Lance’s back. 

Keith froze. Lance was still sleeping. Keith looked at Lance’s hair, and the back of his neck, where his nose had been a few seconds earlier. His heart was racing.  _ It’s just because you’re alone on a weird planet with him,  _ Keith thought to himself.  _ And it was cold. _ Strangely enough, he didn’t want to pull away. He wanted to stay there, by Lance’s back.

It was no secret to Keith that Keith thought Lance was attractive ( _ Conventionally! _ ) or that Keith thought Lance was admirable, but this? Keith wrinkled his nose and got out of the bed. He started looking around Lance’s lion. Maybe he had food or water he didn’t remember about. 

Keith opened a drawer and started pawing through the things. He saw a picture- he looked at it a little more carefully. Two Cuban boys were in a field, smiling at the camera. With a start, Keith realized it was two Lances. Whether it was of Lance’s older or younger brother and Lance, Keith didn’t know. But he felt like he was invading Lance’s privacy. He put the picture in the back of the drawer and  slammed it shut.

Lance stirred from his sleep. “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” Keith said in a tight voice. “How’d you sleep?”

“Pretty well, all things considered,” Lance said, yawning. He stood up, bayard in hand, and set it down on a counter. 

“All things considered?” Keith asked, still not paying attention. He wanted to push the photograph out of his mind. It was depressing, and it made Keith… jealous. Lance had a brother, a family, that he cared about and wanted to go back to. Keith had no one who would smile with him in a picture like that.

“Things like you being a bed hog, yeah,” Lance said smoothly, once again giving a cocky grin.

Keith turned, flushed. “I wasn’t a bed hog! I was cold!”

“And apparently my back is very warm. It’s fine. You were adorable. You talk in your sleep.”

Lance smiled as Keith flushed even darker pink. Keith sputtered, “Well… well, what did I say?”

“Um, you’re in love with me and you’ve never met someone who was sculpted like a Greek god until you met me.” Lance grinned when Keith buried his face in his hands, his ears a dark red. “I’m kidding. You just sort of mumbled a word every couple of minutes. I couldn’t really understand it.”

“You asshole!” Keith punched Lance’s shoulder, but not very hard. “Wait, every couple of minutes? How long were you listening to me sleep?” He teased, but part of him wanted to know  _ really _ bad. Being alone on this planet with only Lance wasn’t doing him any favors in the…  _ romance _ department. Which he realized this was, and he desperately wanted Lance to be a part of.

“Just like, ten minutes!” Lance said defensively. “I couldn’t sleep. I was thinking about how easy it would be for some killer vines or prehistoric tree people to break into our spaceship and kill us.”

Keith shrugged. He felt less invasive now that the photograph was in the back of the drawer. “Well, if we die here, I’m definitely going to finish that Jack Daniels first. Don’t want it to go to waste.”

“Why do you drink it?”

Keith turned around slowly. “Sorry?”

Lance shuffled his feet awkwardly. “I mean, alcohol is bad for you. Why do you drink it?” He took a breath like he was going to say something else, but he closed his mouth and looked away. “Never mind. It’s none of my business.”

“No, no, it’s…” Keith sighed and rubbed his eyes. “It’s not some long sob story, like I use it to deal. Sometimes, when I’m in a mood, I’ll go off into Red and tell everyone I’m fixing her up or something, and I’ll just have a good, quiet hour or two where I’m alone and I’m okay. It’s pretty surreal, being drunk.”

“You only have a fourth of a bottle left.”

“It’s a fourty ounce bottle, Lance. At a high alcohol percentage. It works fine, and I don’t get shitfaced, just tipsy.” Keith shrugged. “It’s just innocent fun.”

“Hardly innocent,” Lance muttered. He looked at the bottle again, and was that disdain Keith saw written across his face? “This stuff can make nightmares.”

“What do you mean?” Keith asked. He felt invasive again, prying into Lance’s personal life. But he swallowed those thoughts.

Lance tried to look at him, but he stayed downcast. “I mean… my sister had a boyfriend. He was an alcoholic. It was awful, really. He was horrible when he was drunk. It took her three years to find to courage to dump him.”

Keith didn’t know what to say. “I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault,” Lance said dismissively. “And definitely not the worst thing that’s ever happened.”

Keith was tempted to ask what  _ that _ meant, but he decided against it. They’d done enough bonding for a lifetime. He just nodded and walked out of the Blue Lion, set on fixing the communications systems. He tried to push Lance away. Lance’s face, his smile, how sad he looked when he talked about his family. Keith wondered if anyone would ever feel that way about him. Mostly, he wanted that person to be Lance.

After about an hour of fiddling, Keith heard Lance drop into Red.

“What do you need?” Keith asked, eyes still focused on mess of sparking wires. “I think I managed to get us back online, so Pidge can track us, but there’s still static on the radio.”

“Yeah, yeah, that’s great and all, but I think I saw something when I was outside, splashing my face with water.”

“That water could’ve been acidic.”

“I saw a duck thing drinking from it, so it couldn’t have been that bad. Anyway, it was this really weird thing with a spear… and it saw me. So, just… be prepared. You have your bayard, right?”

“Of course I have my bayard,” Keith scoffed. He felt Lance standing right next to him. “Do you need anything else?”

“No, I’m gonna hang out here for a while, just until I’m sure I’m okay alone.”

“Are you afraid of isolation?”

“Yeah, actually. It’s my biggest fear.” Lance wasn’t watching Keith work with the wires anymore. Keith turned to look at him, but was met with Lance’s ass right in his face. He turned just the slightest bit pink and looked back at the wires. He tried not to think about how Lance’s ass looked great in the tight suit. It brought back all sorts of feelings that were only getting stronger- and being all cuddled up against Lance that morning? Not helping.

The whole day went by with Lance talking absent-mindedly. Around lunch, they ate another granola bar each. 

Lance looked at the granola bar lazily. “I feel like we should be hungrier than we are. Are days shorter here?”

“I don’t know about you,” Keith said, taking a sip of water, “but I know how to eat  _ just _ enough. I was an orphan, remember? And I was alone in a desert. No one cared about me or fed me.”

“Nah,” Lance said. “People care about you. Me, for example.” Keith tried to stay focused on the water. He hoped his blush went unnoticed, and blamed by the heat. “When I was a kid, there wasn’t always a lot to eat. We went through a really rough patch when my mom lost her job. A lot of my food went to my younger brother.”

So it was a younger brother that Lance had left behind. “You didn’t get as much?”

“No, I gave it to him. He was born skinny. He always looked too small. Even  _ my _ clothes were loose on him.” Lance shrugged. “I gave him what I could.”

They ate in silence. Their conversation resumed, but Keith couldn’t get Lance’s words out of his head. Lance had a period in his life where he didn’t eat as much as he should’ve been. Lance cared about him. Lance had a younger brother. Lance cared about him… 

He fixed a wire that had been bent, and saw a green light flare up on the keyboard. “The communications system!” Keith said excitedly. “Man, I cannot  _ believe _ Pidge managed to teach me something!” He pressed the blue button on the console. “Hey, Team Voltron!  _ Please _ tell me one of you can hear this!”

“We need help!” Lance added.

“We’ve had like, one granola bar to eat.” Keith didn’t feel that hungry yet. He’d survived with less from his time in the desert and as an orphan, jumping from unloving foster home to unloving foster home.

Shiro’s voice answered them. “Pidge says your location isn’t working. Do you have coordinates? Where are you?”

“Um, it’s like this neon green jungle planet with evil vines and crazy blue water. Oh, and spear people. What went wrong in the wormhole?” Lance asked. Keith was fiddling with the wires again.  _ Which one fixed location? Or Red? _

Hunk spoke next. “One of the four castle tower things blew up unexpectedly. You guys were on that side and got blasted through the side of the wormhole. We had no idea what happened to you guys, or the lions.”

“Can you get me talking to Keith?” Pidge asked. “I’m trying to pinpoint his location, but I think something’s up.”

“There are two suns and three moons here, Pidge.” Keith said. “Is that messing with the coordinates?”

“It’ll certainly make it harder,” she answered. “But definitely not impossible.” Then she started speaking a bunch of techie language that Lance didn’t understand and Keith could barely follow.

“Okay, I think I’ve done what you said,” Keith said, pulling back from the panel. “Is Red fixed?”

“It’ll take a while, she’s gotta warm up. And I’m not certain you did everything correctly. But one can hope. I’ve got a smaller range of space where I think you guys are. Can you fix your helmet and get me to Lance’s lion?”

Unfortunately, what Pidge said next didn’t matter, because a spear  _ dinked _ off of the Red Lion’s eye.

Several voices at once roared in approval. “Pidge, um, we have company-”

“Listen, Keith. I’ll be able to find you within the next three hours. Expect us in maybe four or five. Just try to stay alive, and don’t let them disable the lion!”

“Okay, we’ll do our best, but-”

“No buts!”

Another three spears harmlessly bounced off Red’s eye. Another scream of approval, and maybe a few words? It was a barbaric language. Lance turned to Keith, wide-eyed, activated bayard in hand. “Should we go outside?”

“Put on your helmet. We can’t let them come inside the lion. Pidge is tracking us through it, and I don’t want her to lose us.”

“Okay,” Lance said. He looked at Keith and swallowed. “I mean, they’ve got spears, and I’ve got a laser gun. They can’t really hurt us, right?”

“Don’t forget my sword.”

“Your sword is down there with the spears!”

“My sword is so much cooler than whatever they’ve got!” Keith said. “Just get out, okay?” He shoved Lance up, and they both popped out of the head of the lion. “Stop throwing spears at my lion!”

He was taken aback by the sight that greeted him.

Nearly a hundred mini-goblins greeted Keith and Lance. They were neon green creatures with bright yellow eyes. They had pointed elven ears like Alteans, but these were much shorter, meaner, uglier creatures. They were all only about two or three feet tall, but their belts were held together by bones and their belt buckles were skulls.

They roared, all chanting the same word over and over again. It was hard to decipher, but Keith thought it sounded something like, “Staava!”

He didn’t know what that meant, but he was sure he didn’t want to find out. He looked at Lance, and his throat dried. Lance looked back at him. They couldn’t take on seventy to eighty mini monsters, but they still had hours until Pidge rescued them.

Lance said, “Wait, before we go…” He looked nervous. Keith didn’t blame him. He was scared, too. “Never mind. We’ll get through this.”

Keith nodded. He raised his arms up, and was met with twenty spears. He was too shocked to move- Lance grabbed Keith’s shoulders and pulled him to the ground, protecting him. 

They heard angry screaming. The chief (Keith assumed, from the giant skull crown on his head) was yelling. “Val stuul!  _ Val _ stuul! Criso!”

There was munitous mumbling, but the creatures advanced. Spears in hand. Lance held up his bayard, and Keith had his sword ready, but the creatures howled at the sight and ran forward, their chief screaming behind them.

Keith managed to cut two or three clean in half, and Lance shot down about ten, but the creatures were in overpowering numbers. Several climbed on their backs, dragging them down into the mob. Soon, they were tied at the wrists with thick vines that Keith knew would only grow thicker if torn. Lance cried out in pain. One of the creatures had stomped on his hurt ankle.

Keith tried to calm down. Just five hours or so. They could do this, and get away with their lions and their lives.


	3. Well, Shit. These Feelings Are Requited.

CHAPTER THREE: Well, Shit. These Feelings Are Requited.

 

Both of them were gagged. Keith wanted to help Lance, especially because he was hurt, but he couldn’t do anything. Lance was being poked and prodded by stone spears, and nothing Keith did would help that. Lance’s suit was torn and the pricks were bleeding slightly. Keith felt sick.

They were forced up and lead with spears at their backs through the jungle. Keith focused on a few creatures with difficulty. The bright green of the vines that surrounded everything and the bright green of their skin was hard to tell apart.  _ On any other planet, _ Keith thought bitterly,  _ they’d be torn apart for standing out. _

They were led onto a mountain, which had been mostly cleared of trees, but vines still littered the ground. A blazing fire that was taller than either Lance or Keith stood in the center of the clearing. Another fifty goblin creatures were milling around. Keith figured these were the female goblins.

Keith and Lance were dropped a mere foot from the fire. The chief came over, large belly barely held back by his belt of bones, and inspected Lance. Both their bayard had been left discarded by the lion, which the creatures had left alone after they realized they couldn’t get in. Keith hoped they weren’t too far from Red. He needed Shiro, Hunk, Pidge, Allura, Coran- anyone to come in a clutch and save the day.

The chief said, “Wick! Staava inca.”

Lance moved back, but the heat of the flames weren’t helping. Keith looked at the sky, which was lit only by the three moons and billions of stars unaffected by light pollution. The fire was welcome since the frost had ebbed its way on the vines around the two of them. They’d already been there about two hours. Creatures came by and taunted them. The fire grew brighter behind them. Lance was still being prodded by spears. It took all of Keith’s willpower not to stand up and scream in their faces to leave Lance alone.

Keith and Lance were pressed together, shivering in the cold. 

The chief came by, smiling cruelly. “Caava.” 

Lance and Keith were shoved off to a cave, where there were bones. None of them were human, but several were humanoid. Alien bones. Keith and Lance were not the first victims. Keith had no way to tell the time in here. 

He looked at Lance. “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what? You didn’t get us in this mess, that explosion did.”

“For not helping you. They keep getting at you with the spear, and the ankle… I wish it were me, instead.”

“Keith, it’s fine.” But something in Lance’s bright blue eyes was dim. “I swear. I’d rather it be me, anyway. I think…” he swallowed, and the dimness in his eyes was outshone by fear. “I think they’re going to kill me, first.”

“No!” Keith yelped. “They can’t!”

He struggled helplessly against his vine chains. They grew stronger with his struggle. He’d tried rubbing them on the stone and sharp bones, but nothing broke through them faster than they regrew.

Lance shook his head. “Listen, I wanted to tell you something earlier…”

“Please don’t tell me you’re resigned to it.”

“I’m not resigned. I’m saving my strength. Maybe I’ll take a nap while you make up some extravagent plan. The plan is, wait for Pidge.”

“Fine,” Keith said, defeated. “I want to challege these guys or something for the right to live.”

“Just go to sleep, Keith.” Lance smiled, but it was pained. He was probably thinking about the family he would never see again. Keith almost told him. Right there. He almost said,  _ I can’t go to sleep because I like you too much and I don’t want you to die. _

Instead, he just nodded. He felt really tired. He’d been working all day on one granola bar and maybe fifteen ounces of water. He leaned against the wall of the cave.

He nodded off, listening to Lance humming a soothing tune.

 

Lance hummed quietly, trying not to disturb Keith. Keith’s head rolled and fell onto Lance’s shoulder, but he didn’t mind at all.

He wanted to tell Keith. He wanted to say,  _ Oh, by the way, I had a crush on you a while ago and that’s why I was always so jealous of you! And it’s back, and stronger than ever. Bye, it’s time for me to be murdered! _

Lance tried to act like he was okay. But really, he was terrified. The only thing keeping him rooted at that moment was Keith’s soft breathing and occasional mutter. At one point, he said, “Lance.”

Lance said, “What?” thinking Keith had woken up, but he stayed slumped against Lance’s shoulder. 

Lance tried not to overthink it.

His head was still resting on Lance’s shoulder. He found that strangely calming. Both of their helmets had fallen off in the fight. Lance fought the sudden urge to run his hands through Keith’s hair. It looked soft, although probably a little wet with sweat at the nape of his neck.

Lance didn’t know how much time passed. He tried to keep track. He estimated about an hour, maybe two had gone by when he heard loud cheering outside. He didn’t want to, but he shook Keith awake.

 

Keith hadn’t realized he’d fallen asleep on Lance’s shoulder. First the back cacoon, and now this? How much more embarrassing could it get? “Why didn’t you tell me to wake up when I fell on your shoulder?”

“You went straight to my shoulder after you fell asleep,” Lance said with a playful smirk. “Besides, I’m not heartless. I didn’t want to wake you up until I was sure you needed to. They’re cheering outside. I think they’re about to do whatever they’re going to do.”

He swallowed his fear. Keith said, “Don’t worry. We’re going to get out of this, I swear it.”

“No, it’s not that.” Lance paused. “Well, not completely the fact that I’m about to die. There’s something else that I really need to tell you before we go out there.”

Keith looked at him, and he was reminded of when Keith said, “Vol...tron?” Lance remembered it fondly. It was one of the moments he realized he sort of thought Keith was cute.

“What?”

“I- uh, look. It’s not the easiest thing to say. But I…” Lance heard the cheering getting louder. “Well, when I first saw you at the Garrison, I was like, who does Mullet Head think he is? But then I started to actually appreciate your talent, even though I was jealous, and then you got kicked out, but then I saw you when you were getting Shiro, but-”

“Lance,” Keith interrupted. “I’m flattered that you think I’m talented, but why are you telling me about things from a year ago?”

“Because when the Voltron team first got together, I was still jealous, but it’s not really jealousy anymore, it’s admiration.”

Keith refused to get his hopes up. “Thanks, but…”

“Listen, okay? Before I lose my nerve.” Lance closed his eyes tightly and said in a strained voice, “I liked you, Keith. A lot. And you hated me.”

Keith’s world faltered and his brain short-circuted. He flushed.  _ Are you fucking kidding me? _ was the mantra in his head. He stared at Lance with wide eyes. “Lance…”

“Don’t say anything,” Lance muttered. He looked down, and Keith recognized the blush on Lance’s cheeks. “Don’t make it worse.”

“No, Lance. I never hated you. How could I?”

Lance looked back uncertainly. “You didn’t?”

“Of course not. I actually…” Keith burned a brighter red. “I actually liked you, too. And… I still do.”

The uncertainy in the situation weighed down both of them. The uncertainty of their own feelings, of the other’s feelings, of if they were even going to make it out alive. Lance could hear his heartbeat. He was surprised Keith didn’t.

“You still do?” He croaked.

Keith nodded, still flushing. He felt insanely small. Lance was taller, better with girls, always a flirt. How could he have ever felt the same way about Keith?

Lance leaned down. His voice dropped. “So, we’re like, saying this, right? We like each other, and…”

Keith nodded, and his gaze dropped to Lance’s lips. “Yeah, we are,” he whispered back. He moved up to Lance uncertainly, leaning into him.

Lance let go of all uncertainty and kissed Keith.

It was small, closed-mouth, and scared. Neither of them wanted to push further than the other, and neither wanted to pull away.

What broke them apart was the terrified screaming outside. And a very loud blast.

They struggled to their feet, both of them still flushed. They stumbled outside awkwardly, with their hands still tied in front of them. 

They saw the Yellow, Black, and Green Lions. The Green one landed. “Pidge!” Lance shouted. “Pidge!”

The mouth of Pidge’s lion opened. They ran inside and scrambled to the cockpit. Pidge said, “Listen up. They were about to sacrifice Lance to who knows what. Where are your lions? I’m going to fix them and your helmets.”

Keith did his best to guide her back to where the two giant lions sat. Red still wasn’t working. Pidge, Keith, and Lance hopped out of the Green Lion and went into Red. It took Pidge fifteen minutes to boot her up.

“Pidge, you’re an underappreciated genius.”

She smirked. “I know. Come on, Lance. I have to go fix  _ your _ brain dead lion now.”

Keith turned on Red, and they went up into the air. Keith couldn’t stop thinking about that kiss, and with the level that he and Red were bonded, she couldn’t either.

 

“So,” Pidge said. “How are you two still alive after more than 24 hours alone?”

Lance smiled and shrugged, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. “Oh, you know. We’re great. Really bonded and stuff.”

“Yeah?” Pidge said, already poking around the endless wires under the console. A few minutes passed before Lance broke the silence.

“We kissed.”

Pidge banged her head on the metal. She cursed quietly and turned around, eyes wide. “Well.” Pause. “I… was not expecting that. But I’m not surprised.”

“Wait, what?”

“You two have had that whole red/blue, fire/ice rivalry thing, And I know you’re bisexual. And Keith isn’t very subtle about the fact that he’s gay. I figured something like this  _ might _ happen. Shiro told me once that he wouldn’t be surprised. Hunk agreed with Shiro.”

“Who else thhought this?” Lance asked, incredulous, but not angry. He was more surprised than anything else.  _ He _ wasn’t sure he liked Keith until this trip. How’d Pidge figure it out?

“I don’t know if Allura or Coran felt the same way. Allura mentioned it to me when she and Keith came back from checking if they were being tracked by the Galra. ‘Is Lance jealous of me because of Keith?’ I played dumb. You’re welcome.”

“Everyone knew about this except us?”

“Yeah.” She went back to fixing the lion. “Anyway, Hunk and I think Shiro and Allura could get together, but we aren’t really pressed about it.”

Lance tried to wrap his head around this. “Man, you’re an asshole. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me any of this.”

“But then you might’ve shut yourself off from Keith in an effort to not like someone on the team.”

“But-”

“And you never would’ve kissed Keith.” She paused and lookded at him. “Did you  _ like _ kissing him?”

Lance turned pink. “Yeah.”

“And do you  _ like _ him?”

Pinker still. “Yeah.”

“So be glad things turned out the way they did.” Pidge said matter-of-factly before turning back to her work. “Well, have fun with your new buddy. Your lion is fixed.”

She stood up and left Lance in Blue.

_ Yeah, _ Lance thought, smiling at nothing in particular.  _ I’m glad we kissed. And I’m glad that I’m gonna kiss him again. _

_ Things turned out all right, after all.  _


End file.
